Various devices for holding a buoyant party balloon in a desired position on a tabletop have been proposed, but such products are often not very attractive for use at a festive occasion such as a birthday party, or are relatively expensive to manufacture. The products disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,011,447; 5,016,848; 5024011; 5,035,391; 5,074,510; 5,662,510 or 5,755,419, for example, are manufactured by molding synthetic plastics or comparable techniques and the resulting products can not usually be made festive in appearance without additional expense or bother for the consumer.
Balloon holders formed of a core of weighted mass of compacted sand, or cement and sand mixtures, have been proposed that are wrapped in a festive paper, and such balloon holders have met a need for inexpensive but festively decorated party props to secure buoyant balloons. In an earlier application by one of the inventors, Ser. No. 565,709 filed May 5, 2000, an attachment for securing the string of the balloon is held directly to the core and a decorative layer of material is held around the core to provide a festive balloon holder that can be manufactured inexpensively and yet can hold a balloon securely in place.
Other balloon holders have been used that are formed of a small gift bag that may have a weight such as small lead fishing weights or sand placed in the bottom of the gift bag with decorative tissue paper placed loosely inside to cover the weight. Such balloon holders simulating a gift bag are festive and very desirable for many party occasions where buoyant balloons need to be held in place on a tabletop or the like.
However, such balloon holders simulating a gift bag are typically made individually and are not manufactured readily by automatic techniques nor can they be shipped, stored or displayed in a retail environment satisfactorily. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a decorative balloon holder that may simulate a gift bag and yet can be manufactured, stored, shipped and displayed at retail in a manner preserving the decorative appeal of the balloon holder.